We're All in This Together

When: Jan. 5-Feb. 3 2008

The warm, fuzzy, generic title of
this exhibition seems at odds with the conceptual nature of the drawings,
prints, and photos by N. Dash, Hank Willis
Thomas, and Carrie Mae Weems;
the images' historical and sociological subtexts might register with the
knowing art maven but elude the casual viewer. Dash's graphite renderings -- butterflies
and spiders amid auras and clouds of bubbles, snakes coiled around astronomical
vistas -- suggest a scientific illustrator's pantheism, while her American flag
lithograph, stars and stripes replaced by arrays of shaggy, raveled fabric
buffalo, depicts the price paid by wildlife for Manifest Destiny. Willis
Thomas' Unbranded digital prints of
old magazine ads, text and brand names now excised, show us how black consumer
stereotypes are created, yet also how seductive they remain, even decades
later. Weems enriches her digitally printed photos of buildings that are
already infused with black history with sardonic commentary; she adds narrative
interpretation where Willis Thomas removes it, yet both seek to reclaim a
portion of black experience.Through February 3 at Swarm
Studios (560 Second St.,
Oakland).SwarmStudios.net or 510-839-2787.